une demie framboise, s'il vous plait

I found my bar! Okay, okay, Mom, you told me not to drink, but I'm living in France. Land of wine and cheese. The children drink here. And I would never put myself in a situation that I knew was sketchy or hang out with people I don't trust. I'm not a huge drinker, but I knew, that sooner or later, I'd be in situations where alcohol is being consumed just 'cuz it's Europe. I won't go crazy and do what I did in Las Vegas. Trust me, I learned my lesson.

Kathy, Morgan, and Kristen called me up yesterday night saying they were in my neighborhood saying that they were going to get ice cream (so innocent!). All the ice cream places were closed (of course, it's Monday), so we ended up going to this quaint looking old English-looking bar called "The Mayflower". Ironic, isn't it? I come to Paris to drink in a bar called The Mayflower.

We walk in, and there's barely 10 people in here cuz it's a Monday night. The walls are adorned with American license plates and all that old kitschy stuff you would find in a bar like antique beer signs and clocks. The drinks are written on chalkboards showing the Belgian and French beer on tap and the cocktails including their ingredients.

Huge pluses about The Mayflower is that it's up my street, it's small, and the bartender is a nice, big-bellied French guy. They also have happy hour till 9, and they serve really great beer for pretty cheap (2,80 a demie and 3,50 a pint). Morgan said that was pretty good, price-wise. Kathy explained that all Belgian beers come in its own unique glass. She got a Hoeegarden (light), and I got a Framboise (rasberry and almost cider-ish), just cuz I'm a girl and I like sweeter tasting stuffs. Kathy's beer was in a tallish, hourglass shaped glass, while mine was in a glass that looked more like a goblet. Morgan got a gin and tonic. For our next round, Morgan got a "Long Island" (I guess the French version of a long island ice tea), Kathy a Kwak (Morgan described it as "leathery"), and I cowboyed up and got a Delirium (light and definitely more beery) just cuz it sounded more manly. Wish I brought my cam, but here's a pic of Kathy's Kwak that I found on the interwebs:This cool French guy talked to us when he saw that we spoke English. His name's Jean-Marc. His English is pretty good, and he even lived in Los Angeles for a year. Haha, can you imagine a blog titled "Los Angeles For a Year". He said that LA is like a "giant supermarket". I said that that was pretty much right. He was very nice and told us all about how the French are. I sort of felt bad because for some parts he didn't understand what we were talking about because we used slang and made references to things he didn't know (saying stuff like "nor cal"), and I could tell he was lost. And at that moment I knew that I'm going to go through a lot of that if I make French friends, just because they're going to be speaking way faster than me and make references. At one part, he honestly said to Morgan, "You speak very fast. I don't understand". I really felt for him. And it was really bold for him to come up and speak to 4 American girls. But I think after a couple of vodka shots (we watched him and his friends drink a bit, they were next to us), you can do some bold things. He said he's "training" because he's going to Ireland in a couple of months to study there.

Then his friend came over, and spoke to us in English too. He lived in England for a while. Then he switched to French and asked me what I was drinking, and I told him. Then he went away. Jean-Marc explained that he wasn't going to buy me a drink (I didn't even expect that to happen), but that sometimes in France, people just want to know what you're drinking. We left, and JM said for us to come back again, we were all, "Uh, okay!"

Anyway, I really enjoyed this, and this isn't the framboise or delerium talking. I'm really glad they called me up and asked me to go out, because I would never go out at night by myself, and I don't seek people to hang out with, really. It's part of the whole shyness thing I've got going on, and I'm trying to shake that but it's so hard when it's been part of you for so long. But it's really nice to have people who'll think of you, want to hang out with you, people you can trust to be with in this crazy city. Thanks guys!